Yarn furnisher



July 19, 1932- H, swlNGLE'l-IURST 1,867,535

YARN FURNISHER Filed July 22, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 1I July 19, 1932.

H. SWING LEHURST YARN FURNI SHER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 22, 1931 Patented July 19, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HARRY SW'INGLEHURST, 0F ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO SCOTT & WILLIAMS,

INCORPORATED, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.,

A. CORPORATION 0F MASSACHUSETTS YARN FURNISHER Application filed July 22,

This invention relates to the control of the yarn supply to a yarn-using machine; for a speciic example, to a knitting machine; such devices are sometimes called yarn-furnishers.

5 The term yarn hereinafter refers to any iiexible filament capable of being wound, woven," braided or knit.

One object of this invention is to avoid damage tothe yarn by the operation of the 0 yarn-furnisher, and to improve the certainty and increase the delicacy of control of the linear rate of motion of yarn, positively drawn from a supply and furnished by the device to the machine in or by which it is 5 used. Another object of the invention is to provide a device for positively drawing off yarn during acceleration on starting the machine and diminishing speeds prior to a stoppage, as well as during operation at a normal constant speed, at a rate controlled by the tension on the yarn between said device and the mechanism taking the yarn furnished by it as measured against an impedance variable according to changes in the speed ofthe machine, and which will in no way damage the yarn passed through it. A further object of the invention is to provide a traction or drawing-oli device for the yarn reacting with the yarn in such a way as to-avoid subjecting the yarn to crushing or cutting by reeving over edges of or hammer blows between metallic surfaces which are injurious to yarns, particularly to the yarns of synthetic fibres increasingly in use.

The invention will now be explained in connection with apparatus suitable for application to a type of multiple-feed knitting machine in which it is peculiarly desirable to avoid variations in tension of the yarn passing to the needles for the purpose of avoiding variable stresses transmitted through the yarn to the needles, and consequent local variation in the lengths of stitches due to variations of tension on the yarn not incidental to the operation of the needles, the web holders or sinkers, and other consequences of the necessary operation'of the machine. But it will be understood that the explanatory instance of the principle described and construction shown in the drawings is an in- 1931,. Serial N'o. 552,311.

stanceV only of the genus of the invention,n which may be embodied in and exempliied by many different forms of apparatus, or applied to other situations without change other than adaptation to the particular arrangements of the yarn-using machine with which it is to be used.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 'l is a plan view of mechanism shown applied to a platform or table above the needles and needle-feeding yarn-guides of a knitting machine, not shown;

Fig. 2 isa front elevation of the devices of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of devices shown in Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is an elevation partly in section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4; and Fig. 6 is a diagram illustrative of certain operative relations between the parts of the device. l

Referring to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, on a suitable bed, table or frame element of the machine, shown as an overhead stationary circular element A, mounted concentrically with the axis of rotation of a circular knitting machine, and above 'the needles, there is mounted a standard 1 providing a. stout arm 2 overhanging the periphery of the table A. The arm 2 may be provided with an upward extension 3 and a lateral extension 4 which may be bored f.

to receive a vitreous guide eye 5 for one of the yarns g/ extending from an overhead guide downwardly toward the place in the machine at which it is to be fed to the knitting needles, by a yarn finger or guide, a burr wheel, or other usual device, not shown, by which it is applied to the needles. Each of the yarns y unwinds from an unwinding supply which may impose a variable resistance to unwinding.

yThe yarn y preferably extends through a guide eye 6, in an arm 6a supported directly or indirectly from the table A, and which may be relatively fixed, except for adjust# ment. From eye 6 the yarn passes to a guide eye 7 in an arm 7 a also directly or indirectly supported by the bed or table A, which may be relatively fixed during operation of the The guide eye 8 may be mounted on a lever 56, described below, forming la part of a control device serving to indicate and control by its motion in response to the tension on the yarn running past it and other stressesv a different degree of positive unwinding stress on the yarn caused by mechanism about to be described operating to draw the yarn ofi' from the unwinding supply and change the rate of travel of the yarn in response to such indication.

A preferred device for acting on the yarn positively to draw it off from its unwinding device may comprise, as shown, a pair of intermeshing toothed cylindrical rolls 10 and 11, of which one member, as shown the member 10, is positively driven by any suitable driving means at a`speed related to the speed of rotation of a rotary element, such as the needle carrier, of the machine in connection with which the device is used. As best shown in Fig. 3, the roll 10 may be mounted on the outer end of a radially placed shaft 12 extending through a bore in a base 13 and in a cylindrical bearing extension 14 of saidbase 13, the parts 13 and 14 being integral with or attached to a downward extension of the bed or table A. On its inner end the radially placed shaft 12 may carry a pinion 15 meshing with a bevel gear ring 16 concentric with the rotatory element of the machine, and driven in any suitable way concomitantly with the driving motion of the needle carrier or other rotatory element of the machine. The roll 10 is therefore driven at a rate proportional to the motion of the rotatory element of the machine, its peripheral speed being the minimum rate at which yarn is taken in by t-he needles at a normal rate of consumption to make fabric of a certain length of stitch by knitting with that yarn.

The roll 11 cooperates with the roll 10 to seize between the rolls 10 and 11 the yarn y, and to cause the yarn y to be delivered at a linear rate greater than said minimum varyv ing in accordance with the tension upon it Va greater or lesser degree, th

measured by the position of the eye 8. While the variation of the effect of the rolls 10 and 11 to deliver yarn at a lesser or a greater rate may be secured in many different ways, a preferred mode, as illustrated more particularly in Figs. 2 and 5,`is to cause a series of soft, resilient, radially-placed uniform teeth or ribs, on the roll 10 to intermesh with a like serieson the periphery of the roll 11 to e yarn being guided between the rolls by the eye 6 and the eye 7.' To'this end, the roll 10 may beconstruct/ed like-the roll 11 which, as shown in I least two diameters of the yarn expected to be used by the machine. Because of these provisions, rolls 10 and 11 may intermesh, roll 11 being operated by the roll 10 as a driver, during considerable variation of the axial distance between the centers of rotation of the roll 10 and the roll 11 without imposing upon the yarn any injurious strain, or subjecting the yarn to hammer blows between hard toothesurfaces, as would be the case, especially during acceleration when starting, or diminishing speed when stopping, if the teeth 21 were metallic.

Whenever, therefore, the roll 11 is caused to approach more nearly to the roll 10, the yarn y travelling at Figs. 5 and 6, between and through the intermesh between the teeth 21 of the said rolls, will be taken in at a rate to cause it to occupy a longer path at w, and therefore will be delivered at a higher rate than when the degree of intermesh between the teeth 21 of the rolls 10 and 11 is less, by reason of displacement of the axis of one of the rolls in relation to the other. In the form shown, see Figs. 2, 5 and 6, the axial position of the roll 11 is shifted in accordance with all of the stresses upon it, including the operative torque of the roll 10, the resistance of the yarn y to being bent over the edges of the intermeshing teeth, and the tension of the yarn y as transmitted into motion of the roll 11 toward the roll 10 by a connection to the structure carrying the eye 8. Displacement stresses of the axis of roll 11 due to the torque of the roll l0 and the resistance of the yarn to passing through the intermesh between the teeth 21, acting in the direction of arrow a, Fig. 6, are opposed to the force derived from motions of the eye 8 in the direction of arrow b, Fig. 6, in response to the relative tension on the yarn y during its travel to and beyond the eye 8, and by a stabilizing pendulum weight 59, mentioned below.

In order to realize these operative relan tions, preferred devices may be provided as follows: Roll 10 is fixed to the outer end of the shaft 12 in any desired or suitable manner, for example by its cylindrical sleeve being pinched between a shoulder, not shown, on shaft 12, and the outer end of the shaft 12, by a washer 25 held by a screw 26'in an axial bore in the shaft 12.

Roll 11 rotates on and is carriedby a shaft 27 rotatable in a bore 28 in the depending arm, 29 of a bell-crank lever 30 on a shouldered pivot screw 31 in a bore in an upwardly extending lug 32 of the base 13. The bellcrank lever 30 may comprise a lateral arm 34 bifurcated to straddle an adjustment screw 35 fast in the base 13, the arm 34 being adjustable in opposition to astiiil compression spring 36 in a shallow bore in the base 13 and also in a shallow bore in the underside of the arm 34. Arm 34 may conveniently be provided with a thumb piece 37, permitting manual depression to separate the rolls 10 and 11 for rethreading. Adjustment of the yoperative position of the shaft 27 may be primarily effected by a micrometer nut 40 held by a lock nut 41 on the screw 35.

Shaft 27 is a crank shaft, being integral with or attached to a crank pin 45 having a shoulder 46 against which the cylindrical core 2() of the roll 11 is held for rotationby washer 48 and a screw 49. At the righthand end of shaft 27, as shown in Fig. 4, the shaft 27 may be milled to form -a key seat 50 to receive a lug not concentric with the remainder of a hole in one end of a lever arm 51, which is held on the end of shaft 27 by a cap screw 52. The arm 51 is bored at its outward end to receive the bent end of a tension link 54.

Link 54 is connected to be stressed upwardly whenever the eye 8 is depressed by the tension of the yarn.

'In a preferred construction, as best shown in Fig. 3, the eye8 is held at the extremity of an arm 55 forming a part of a three-armed lever 56 pivoted on a shoulder screw 57 in a horizontal bore at the junction between the arms 2 and 3 ofthe bracket 1. The depending arm 58 of the lever 56 is faced and bored to receive the slotted weight59heldby a screw 60. On the arm 55 an opposing counterweight 61 having a set screw 62 may be moved radially with respect to the center at 57. The horizontal arm 63 of the lever 56 has a bored projection 64 through which the link 54 passes and abovewhich link 54 receives a collar 65 held fast by the set screw 66. 'Ihe bore in the projection 64 is sufficiently loosel for angular play of the link 54.

It will be apparent that when the crank shaft 27, 45 is rocked by upward motionof the end of the lever 51 induced by an upward pull on the link 54, the roll 11 will be moved toward the axis of the roll l0, according to the extent of eccentricity of the crank pin 45 to the 'remainder of the shaft 27.

The reaction of the torque of the roll 10 placement of weight 59.

arm 51. The lever 56 normally tends by the gravity of the pendulum counterweight 59 to occupy the position shown in Fig. 3, the impedance of the weight 59 to motion in direction increasing with angular dis- Inertia ofthe weights 59, 61 and the displacement of the weight 59 resists the tendency of the eye 8 .to yield to momentary or slight operative To the same effect,

tensions on the yarn y. the resilientteeth of the rolls 10 and 11 are an effective spring-dynamometer connection between'the driving and the driven roll, serving to steady the stress on link 54 transmitted through arm 51, so that impedance to motion of the eye 8 and lever 56 contributed bythe torque of roll 10 is reliably proportional to the forces variable with the speed of the machine, as distinguished from the resistance of the yarn to unwinding from its supply.

When the resistances or impedances to motion ofthe three-armed lever 56 are overcome by increase of tension on the yarn y between the furnisher rolls 10, 11 and the yarn-using machine, the result of motion of the lever 56 is to move the roll 11 into closer intermesh with the roll 10, whereupon the yarn y is fed faster; whereupon the tension is relieved and the eye 8 rises and the roll 11 is moved away from the roll 10. The result of this is to achieve a smooth and continual adjustment of the rate of forcible drawing 0E of normal breakage in operation, whereas the performance of the device under these-conditions to avoid variationin the knit fabric due to variation in'.V unwinding tension is entirely satisfactory. y f

I claim:

a 1. The combination, lin a yarn furnisher for a machine usin .the yarn, of coacting yarn advancing devlces, at least one of said devices comprising ya series of spaced resiliently yieldable yarnfengaging elements, means forlnnyingsaid latterl device at least inthe direction of yarn travel to draw oi yarn from a source of supply, and mearis for controlling the .drawing-off rate comprising a control device having freedom of motion vin one direction according to the tension on the yarn between the furnishenand the machine?Y said control device having means for stressing it in the opposite direction by a force variable according to a force transmitted Y from one of said coacting devices to the other.

2. Yarn-furnisher for yarn-using machines having therein a traction device for drawing off yarn 4from la supply comprising means for guiding the yarn between a driving toothed roll intermeshing with a driven toothed roll, the teeth of at least one of said rolls being circumferentially yieldable, means for suporting said rolls for rotation having freedom of motion for the axis of one of them toward and away from the axis of the other, a controller for said axis-supporting means stressed in one direction by the tendency of said rolls to separate by reason of the torque of the driven roll, and means for .causing said controller to be stressed in the opposite direction by the tension on the yarn between said furnisher and said yarnusing machine.

3. Yarn-furnisher for yarn-using machines having therein a traction device for drawing olf yarn from a supply comprising-means for guiding the yarn between a driving toothed roll intermeshing with a driven toothed roll, one of'said rolls having resilient teeth, means for supporting said rolls for rotation having freedom of motion for the axis of one of them toward and away from the axis of the other, a controller for said axis-supporting means stressed in one direction by the tendency of said rolls to separate by reason of the torque of the driven roll, and means for causing said controller to be stressed in the opposite direction by the tension on the yarn between said furnisher and said yarn-using machine.

4. Yarn-furnisher for yarn-using machines, having therein a traction device for drawing olf yarn from a supply comprising means for guiding the yarn between a driving toothed roll intermeshing with a driven toothed roll, means for supporting said rolls forrrotation having freedom of motionc for the axis of orfe of them toward and away from the axis of the other, one of said rolls having resilient teeth intermeshing with the teeth of the other, and means for moving the axis of that roll having freedom of motion t0- ward and away from the other roll to vary the rate of drawing oli' of the yarn.

5. Yarn-furnisher for yarn-using machines, having therein a traction device for drawing oli yarnl from a supply comprising means for guiding the yarn between a driving toothed roll intermeshing withy a driven toothed roll, means for supporting said rolls for rotation having'freedom of mot-ion for the axis of one of them toward and away from the axisof the` other, one of said rolls having resilient teeth intermeshingwith the teeth of the other, and means for moving the axis of that roll having freedom of-motion toward the other roll upon increase of tension of the yarn between said rolls and said yarnusing machine.

6. Yarn-furnisher for yarn-using ma` chines, having therein a traction device for drawing ofi' yarn from a supply comprising means for guiding the yarn between a driving toothed roll intermeshing with a driven toothedroll, means for supporting said rolls for rotation having freedom of motion for the axis of one of them toward and away from the axis of the other, each of said rolls comprised of a molded resilient body having resiliently yielding teeth, and means for moving the axis of that roll having freedom of motion toward the other roll to vary the rate of drawing olf of the yarn in relation to the speed of said driving roll.

7. Yarn-furnisherY for yarn-using machines comprising a driven roll having soft and resiliently yielding teeth and a driving connection thereto driven in accordance with the operating speed of said machine, a roll having soft and resiliently yielding teeth intermeshing with said driving roll, means for supporting one of said rolls on an axis movable toward and away from the driving roll to vary the degree of intermesh between the respectiveteeth, means for guiding yarn to be drawn off from a supply between the contacting surfaces of said rolls, and a controller for the position of the means for supporting the roll on the movable axis comprlsing a guide contacting with the yarn between said rolls and said yarn-using machines, a

lever supporting said guide, and a link between said lever and the means for supporting the driven roll adapted on increase of tension on the yarn to cause the teeth on said rolls to-be more deeplyuintermeshed.

8. Yarn-furnisher for yarn-using machines comprising a driven-toothed roll and a driving connection thereto driven in accordance with the operating speed of said machine, a toothed roll intermeshing` with said driving roll, means for supporting said driven roll on an axis movable toward and away from the driving roll to vary the degree of intermesh between the respective teeth, means for guiding yarn to be drawn 0E from a supply between the contacting surfaces of said rolls, and a controller for the position of the means for supporting the driven roll comprising a guide contacting with the yarn between said rolls and said yarn-using machines, a lever supporting said guide, a pendulum weight on said lever acting to restore said lever to a normal position on decrease of tension on said yarn, and a link between said lever and the means for supportin the driven roll adapted on the motion 0 said lever caused by increase of ten-A sion on the yarn to cause the teeth onsaid rolls to be more deeply intermeshed.

9.. Yarn-furnisher for yarn-using machines, having therein a traction devicefor drawing off yarn from a supply comprising means for guiding the yarn between a driving toothed roll intermeshing with a driven toothed roll, means for supporting said rolls for, rotation having freedom of motion for the axis of one of them toward and. away from the axis ofthe other, one of said rolls having a toothed periphery resiliently yielding in a circumferential direction with respect to the body of said roll, the peripheral teeth intermeshing with the teeth of the other, and means for moving the axis-` of that roll having freedom of motion toward'the other roll upon increase of tension of the yarn between said rolls and said yarn-usingfmachine.

l0. A device for drawing off yarn comprising cooperating rolls for contact with a yarn between them and means for driving one of said rolls, at least one of said rolls having a toothed peripheral surface for contact with another roll said toothed surface being adapted resiliently to yield to circumferential' stresses. Y

11. A device for drawing off yarn comprising cooperating rolls for contact with a yarn between them and means for driving one of said rolls, the driving roll having a toothed peripheral surface for contact with another roll said toothed surface being adapted resiliently to yield to circumferential stresses between its axis and its peripheral contact surface.

12. In a yarn-furnisher, a device for drawing olf yarn comprised of toothed rolls having cylindrical bodies and projecting teeth thereon of resilient materia-1, the teeth of one roll intermeshing with the spaces between the teeth in the other, means for holding the rolls for rotation, and means for driving one o them.

13. Yarn-traction roll for yarn-furnishers comprising a cylindrical body having projecting teeth, said teeth being comprised of resilient material.

14. Yarn-traction roll for yarn-furnishers comprising an annular core and a cylindrical body having projecting axially-extending teeth, said body and. teeth comprised l of resilient molded material.

15. Yarn-traction roll for yarn-furnishers comprising a cylindrical body having rojecting teeth, said teeth being comprise of soft resilient material adapted to yield oompressively to accommodate a yarn running between them.

16. Yarn-traction roll for yarn-furnishers comprising an annular core and a cylindrical body having projecting axially-extending teeth, said body and teeth comprised of a homogeneous body of resilient material molded on said core.

17. Yarn-traction roll for yarn-furnishers comprising an annular core and a. cylindrical body having projecting axially-extending teeth, said body and teeth comprised of a reldo 

